1. Tribute system that has existed for many years

The so-called tribute refers to the trade relationship between the Central Plains dynasty and other neighboring small countries or vassal countries. The essence of this trade relationship is that the neighboring small countries or vassal countries regularly pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty to gain its recognition and protection, while the Central Plains dynasty maintains its control over the neighboring small countries or vassal countries by returning gifts to show the majesty of the great powers.

In fact, small countries often agree with this kind of tribute system, because most of the items they gave to the Central Plains Dynasty were local native products, but in return, they got rare treasures and real money. By the way, they could purchase a lot of Central Plains products on their way back. Why not? This tribute system, which arose from the Western Zhou Dynasty and existed on the basis of national strength and cultural centripetal force, has a strong binding force on neighboring small countries or vassal countries. If any small country disobeys, the Central Plains Dynasty will take the interruption of tribute as a sanction, which often scares small countries to tremble.

However, as history came to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, this tribute system, which has existed for nearly two thousand years, met with a crisis. The strong rise of the Khitan in northern China not only occupied a vast territory, but also claimed to be the Central Plains Dynasty, so it was impossible for the Song Dynasty to continue to maintain the so-called tribute system of the Central Plains Dynasty. On this premise, the Song Dynasty could only establish an equal bilateral trade system with the Liao Dynasty.

foreign tributes

II. The deepening of trade between Song and Liao

During the Song Taizu period, the people of Song and Liao countries spontaneously conducted free trade on the border. At this time, both Song and Liao dynasties did not interfere with the trade between the two countries, and the types, prices and methods of trade were all decided by the border people and businessmen themselves, thus forming a rare period of free trade in history.

In Song Taizong's time, the situation changed. In Song Dynasty, special institutions were set up on the border between the two countries to manage trade. There are three main reasons for this: first, the need to standardize national border management; Second, the Song Dynasty hoped to increase the national fiscal revenue by setting up trade management institutions to collect tariffs. Third, Song Taizong is determined to recover sixteen states of Youyun, which will naturally restrict the export of Liao Dynasty to avoid selling strategic materials to the enemy easily.

So the Song Dynasty set up a monopoly market in Xiongzhou, the border trade distribution center between the two countries, to manage the trade with Liao Dynasty. The whole monopoly market was strictly controlled by the government, and both Song and Liao countries also set up special institutions to manage the trade between the two countries and collect customs duties. In this way, businessmen can't trade at will as before, and the government doesn't allow businessmen of the two countries to trade face to face. All trade needs to be reached through the intermediary sent by the government.

The commodity trade in the Song Dynasty

This resulted in two results. On the one hand, under the standardized trade control, both Song and Liao sides could collect considerable taxes from it, and at the same time, it restricted the important materials including military materials from flowing to each other. But on the other hand, the more restricted the trade, the scarcer and more expensive the goods are, which leads to the smuggling phenomenon. This kind of border smuggling was once rampant, and even many officials involved in it.

In Song Zhenzong's time, the Liao Dynasty continued to grow and develop, and its strategy for the Song Dynasty changed from defending to attacking, becoming the active party. In 14 AD, the Liao Dynasty marched south in a big way, and made an agreement with the Song Dynasty in Ganzhou, which is known in history. Alliance of Gengyuan? . The Covenant stipulates that the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty are about brotherly countries, and the Song Dynasty gives the Liao Dynasty 12, pieces of silver and 2, pieces of silk every year. This seems to be an unequal treaty, and the Central Plains dynasty changed from a tributary to a tributary, but it was not necessarily a good strategy for the Song Dynasty.

Because in terms of economic and social development level and material and financial resources, the Song Dynasty undoubtedly has obvious advantages. If the war breaks out, the Song Dynasty will not be sure of winning, but will also spend a lot of money and manpower. According to historical records, the cost of a large-scale war in the Song Dynasty reached 3 million taels of silver, and after concluding a covenant with the Liao Dynasty, only 32, taels of silver were needed every year, which was less than 1% of the cost of a war, which was very cost-effective. Moreover, at this time, in the border trade between Song and Liao countries, the Song Dynasty had a large trade surplus, occupying an advantageous position, which was far greater than the 3,-year-old currency delivered to the Liao Dynasty every year.

song Liao? Alliance of Gengyuan?

Third, I can't live without your mutton, and you can't live without my tea.

One of the important reasons why the Song Dynasty was suppressed militarily by the Liao Dynasty for a long time was that the troops in the Song Dynasty were mainly infantry, while the troops in the Liao Dynasty were mainly cavalry, and the fighting capacity of cavalry was far stronger than that of infantry. Did the Song Dynasty not want to develop cavalry? Of course not, but the lack of high-quality war horses in the Song Dynasty. The area where the Liao Dynasty was located was rich in grasslands and water plants, and was rich in high-quality war horses. However, the Song Dynasty lacked favorable conditions for raising horses, so it was only possible to import war horses from the Liao Dynasty.

However, you should know that war horses are strategic military materials, and the price will naturally not be cheap. At that time, a war horse could be sold for 3 rounds, and the Song Dynasty had to pay a large amount of silver to the Liao Dynasty to buy a horse, which would lead to a large loss of wealth in the Song Dynasty in the long run. How to deal with this situation? The Song Dynasty thought of the leaves of a magical plant, that is, tea.

The Khitan people have a special liking for tea

Tea is a plant that the Liao Dynasty didn't have, but the Khitan people love tea very much, even to the extent of obsession. Under the guidance of the Khitan nobles, the custom of drinking tea soon became popular among the civilian class. So the Song Dynasty exported a large amount of tea to the Liao Dynasty every year, which brought huge benefits to the Song Dynasty, which was equivalent to exchanging tea for war horses, which was very cost-effective. The Liao Dynasty issued a control order to strictly prohibit the export of war horses to the Song Dynasty. But if you don't need a war horse, what can you exchange for tea? In fact, the Liao Dynasty also had a commodity loved by the people of the Song Dynasty, namely mutton.

The mutton produced in Liao Dynasty was delicious, tender and juicy, which was praised by the Central Plains people and became an indispensable food for the upper class in Song Dynasty. In order to maintain the long-term commodity scarcity and counter the tea trade in the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty issued an order prohibiting ewes from being exported to the Song Dynasty, so as to prevent the sheep from leaking out. In fact, according to common sense, we know that this practice is unnecessary. Of course, the taste and variety of mutton are also related, but the most important thing is the environment in which sheep grow and the forage they eat. Even if there were sheep breeds in the Liao Dynasty in the Song Dynasty, it is estimated that they could not raise sheep with delicious meat. Although this is a joke, but from the Song and Liao sides? Tea sheep trade? It can be found that what lurks under the calm surface is actually an undercurrent of trade.

people in the song dynasty praised the mutton produced in the Liao dynasty

4. There were both material embargoes and cultural sanctions

As for the material embargo, the song dynasty was also tit for tat. Since you don't allow me to buy your war horse and breeding sheep, I won't sell you sulfur and saltpeter. We know that sulfur and saltpeter can produce gunpowder, which is an important strategic military material. Not only that, even the wood that can make arrow shafts was forbidden to be exported to the Liao Dynasty in the Song Dynasty. It can be seen that the intensity of the material embargo in the Song Dynasty was no less than that in the Liao Dynasty. All this is still on the physical level. In addition, the Song Dynasty is not rich in culture. When the time came to Song Shenzong, the Khitan nobles yearned for the Central Plains culture. They were proud to read Confucian classics, and even the Liao emperors hoped to be born in the Central Plains in the afterlife. In the eyes of the children of the Qidan nobles, the Central Plains culture is advanced and fascinating, and they are eager to read more books of the Song Dynasty. For Song Shenzong, if the Khitans mastered the knowledge and culture of the Central Plains to arm themselves, it would be a great threat to the Song Dynasty.

In this case, the Song Dynasty imposed a cultural embargo on the Liao Dynasty, that is, it was forbidden to export any books to the Liao Dynasty. Violators not only confiscated all their income, but also were severely punished. However, people in the Liao Dynasty had a strong demand for books. Since you won't sell them to me, I'll try my best to buy them at a high price. So the books of the Song Dynasty were on the border of the Song and Liao Dynasties for a while? Luoyang paper is expensive? It has become a sought-after hard currency, and many businessmen and even officials have smelled the business opportunities and risked their lives to smuggle books, making a lot of money.

books of the song dynasty? Luoyang paper is expensive?

V. The increasing shortage of money

With the development of commodity economy and the continuous expansion of trade between Song and Liao, the demand for coins has also soared. As early as the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the annual amount of coins minted by the government had far exceeded that of the Tang Dynasty. By the time of Song Shenzong, the demand for coins had further increased, and the existing amount of coins could not meet the needs of social and economic development. For example, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the amount of coins minted each year was about 3,. By the time of Song Zhenzong, it had risen to 1.3 million, but it was still not enough.

The same is true in the Liao Dynasty. When the Khitans first emerged, the economy was very backward and basically remained at the stage of barter. With the strengthening of strength and the expansion of power, this situation has changed, especially after the Liao Dynasty got sixteen states of Youyun, the Liao Dynasty copied the commodity economy model of the occupied area to its own base camp, so the demand for coins in the Liao Dynasty was also increasing year by year. However, the backward coin-making technology and lack of resources in Liao Dynasty prevented it from casting enough coins, so it had to obtain them from Song Dynasty through trade.

Song Dynasty coins

Under this premise, the Liao Dynasty had to obtain the copper coins cast in the Song Dynasty through a few commodities that were dominant in the Song Dynasty, and it was often popular for Song Dynasty businessmen to come to the Liao Dynasty to do business, because they could bring them the copper coins that were scarce. This phenomenon of money shortage is very intriguing under the trade background of mutual confrontation and interdependence between Song and Liao countries. It is embodied in the concrete behavior that both countries hope to increase the trade volume with each other in order to obtain more coins and wealth to develop themselves, and at the same time, they are afraid that the key strategic materials obtained by the other side will pose a threat to themselves. This contradictory and complicated psychology gradually deepened with the increasing shortage of money, until it later affected the formulation and implementation of a series of strategies such as politics and military affairs.

The trade between Song and Liao Dynasties had a far-reaching impact on other aspects

Looking at the changes of trade policies between Song and Liao Dynasties in different periods, we can draw a conclusion that the development of commodity economy is the driving force and the fundamental reason to promote the deepening of trade between the two sides and the improvement of their own social production level, and the mutual trade embargo and sanctions are based on this background and the policy adjustment according to the actual situation. Although this period of history has been more than a thousand years ago, the enlightenment it brings us is extremely valuable wealth.